


The Muddy Inbetween

by SunlitRiddle



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Post-War, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24111241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlitRiddle/pseuds/SunlitRiddle
Summary: Reimagining of the events in Crisis CoreSeven years before Meteor, the Wutai War has been grinding on for almost a decade.  Second Class SOLDIER Zack Fair is about to witness the climactic end to the war. But conflict always marches on, the sound of boots in mud.
Relationships: Angeal Hewley & Genesis Rhapsodos & Sephiroth, Zack Fair & Angeal Hewley, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife, Zack Fair & Genesis Rhapsodos & Sephiroth, Zack Fair & Kunsel, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23





	1. [ μ ] - εγλ 2000, October 7

## Outside Fort Tamblin, Wutai

It wasn’t his first day in Wutai, and it wouldn’t be his last. No, it would land somewhere in the muddy inbetween where one day oozed into the next. _The same brown and grey and rust red_ , he thought. Zack shifted his weight, the mud grabbing and sucking him down until he lifted his boot with a slurp and set it back down with a squelch. The frequent, if light, rainfall combined with the heavy foot traffic had churned the Shinra camp into a mudhole. _Brown and grey and rust red._

He was also stuck in the muddy inbetween with the other Second Class SOLDIERS. The common infantry scurried downhill, the First Class uphill. There weren’t many Seconds, fewer than the infantry and Thirds but more than the Firsts. Their tents lined up, an indeterminate brown that was once purple before they were washed in mud and bleached by the sun. A fold in his own tent had retained a comparatively brilliant grape hue, a color that would match his uniform. He shared the tent with Kunsel, but the man was habitually absent. He stood beneath the shallow awning that sheltered the threshold, and himself, from the persistent mist.

“Afraid you’ll mess up your hair, sir?” laughed a Third Class as he carefully slipped downhill.

“It takes me hours to wake up like this,” Zack quipped back. “What do they have you guys working on?”

“The same. The fighting is still miles up the road. They expect to send us in any day now.”

“If only. They’ve been saying that for weeks now.” _We’ve been waiting here, holding for those weeks. We’re wasted, stuck here in the mud. What are they waiting for?_

“Anything but this.” The Third put his hands on hips and stared into the jungle, northwest, towards the nearest battlefield. “Oh, First Class Hewley asked me to send you to his tent.”

Zack started. “And you didn’t lead with this?” He ducked back into his tent, voice slightly muffled by the canvas walls. “For business?”

“He didn’t say. He just said ‘Send Zack up here when you see him.’”

“Not ‘Send Second Class Fair’?”

“No, sir. Just Zack.”

Zack came back out in slightly less of a rush, greatsword slung across his back. He slapped his own face, both palms both cheeks. “Ok, alright, not trouble.”

The Third smirked slightly. “You? Trouble?”

“Get out of here,” Zack laughed, “and get out of this rain.”

“Sir!”

Zack waved the Third off and began his slippery trek up the side of the hill. When it looked like their temporary camp would become a more permanent base, some enterprising infantryman had stuck a dozen wood stakes into the hillside and draped a rope into a “handhold”. He ignored it, instead digging the treds of his boots deep into the clay. _Just like back home. The rain, the jungle, the godforsaken mud._

It was a familiar trek. Angeal’s tent was almost identical to Zack’s, but vaguely blue-black rather than brownish purple. He’d been called in so many times to stand in the public meeting room that took up the vast majority of the tent to be reprimanded, or given orders, or to be reviewed and mentored. He also knew that though he didn’t have to share the space, Angeal had only allowed himself a narrow sliver behind a curtain for his cot and personal belongings.

He ducked beneath the tent flap - it had been tied open, an unspoken invitation - and announced his presence with a groan, “Do you have that mud brush, Angeal? My boots are covered -” He looked up and realized his C.O. had company. Two men in First Class indigo reclined with predatory ease in folding chairs that seemed too fragile for them. “Sir,” Zack began, shooting a panicked glance at Angeal, “is this formal or…”

Angeal smiled at his paperwork. “No, they’re just a couple old friends visiting.”

“Oh, ok,” Zack found the coarse bristled brush and began scraping the clay from his boots. “What did you want to see me for?”

He continued to sort through the last pages of paperwork, then handed a page to one of the other Firsts. Zack eventually gave up fighting the muck that had happily moved to hands, face, and fatigues; but nowhere off his person. “Don’t worry about it,” Angeal said and motioned him inside. “It’ll dry and come off later. I should relay orders to you before you get star struck -”

“Star struck?” Then he focused - really looked at the two Firsts. He blinked. _How could I mistake them for Firsts? How did I not notice? Informal my ass._ Zack snapped to attention. “First Class Rhapsodos, First Class,” he breathed, “Sephiroth.”

Angeal set his pen down and turned to Zack. “No ‘First Class Hewley’?”

“No ‘Second Class Fair’,” he quipped back, then bit the inside of his lip. _Shut up. Shut your damn mouth._

Angeal didn’t laugh, but he smiled to himself. “You’re right. I did give you the impression this would be informal. And it is. At ease.”

Zack relaxed - slightly, constantly aware of the two others in the room. Rhapsodos was reading, seemingly unaware and unaffected by Zack’s quip. Sephiroth reclined with his longstaff - _longstaff?_ \- tied in a silken bag and braced against his shoulder, but his cold Mako eyes tracked him from deep set shadows. Zack tried very hard not to shiver. To Angeal he said, “You, well, you’re you. You’re my friend.”

“And mentor. And Commanding Officer.”

“And one of my teammates,” Sephiroth rumbled. His voice was quiet, controlled, contained. It was so much different live than it was when blasted over loudspeakers at assembly or through the tinny speakers of their radios and TVs. It was like the rest of him, carefully managed. “Angeal, Genesis, and I. If Shinra has a target they want dealt with, completely, unequivocally, they send us.”

 _You knew that. Dammit, but did you KNOW know._ He turned his head slightly toward Sephiroth. “I had no idea you were even here.”

“That’s the idea,” Angeal said as he pulled a couple pages from the stack on his desk. “If you didn’t know the two most instantly recognizable SOLDIERs were here, then the Wutaians won’t know.”

Zack reevaluated the three in the room. _No, no one would expect these two to be in First Class uniform._ Sephiroth’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail, exposing his face. He looked severe, almost gaunt. His sharp cheekbones cast stark shadows in the overhead light. Rhapsodos looked sallow in the severely dark turtleneck. Only Angeal looked normal, comfortable, in First Class indigo.

“This little deception is necessary, if annoying.” Angeal picked up his phone, pressed a few keys, then set it back down. The phone in Zack’s pocket rumbled. “I just forwarded our orders, but basically, our mission is to take Fort Tamblin. It’s a night mission. The Seconds will take squads of infantry into the fort. Four gates, four squads. Eliminate as many troops as you can, but your primary purpose is to cause a distraction.”

“I get to be a nuisance?”

“What you’re best at. We need you to be loud and aggressive, to be a threat they can’t ignore.” He leaned over his desk. “You’ll be heavily audited tonight, Zack. I want you to understand just how important this mission is. If we pull it off,” his eyes flickered to the other two men sitting silently in the tent, “HQ thinks this could win the war.” He paused to let the gravity of the situation sink in. “I’ve recommended you for First Class, Zack.”

Zack gaped like a fish for a solid two seconds before he could talk. “Are you kidding? Oh, man, I could hug you.”

“Please don’t.” He signed a paper and passed it to Sephiroth. “Don’t make me regret this.”

 _A mission that could win the war and all I have to do is be a pest? There’s no way I could fail this._ Zack clicked his boots to attention. “Sir!”

“Review the details of the mission. Be ready with your squad at 1900. Until then, get some rest. Dismissed.”

He managed to keep some semblance of SOLDIER decorum as he left the tent. The rain had stopped and the skies began to clear. A wall of humidity hit him in the chest as he stopped and took a deep breath of the hot, wet air. Then he let out a loud whoop. It echoed off the surrounding hillside and several soldiers standing on the muddy embankment turned his way. He spread his arms to the blazing southern sunlight and basked, just basked. _First Class is as good as mine._ He laughed and slid downhill to the Second tier.

Kunsel was reclining in their shared tent, helmet on his foot locker. His nondescript brown hair plastered around his temples, eyes downcast as he scrolled through his phone. “Did you get tonight’s mission?”

“Yeah,” Zack leaned his sword against his cot and flopped down. His muddy boots smeared a line across the Shinra logo on his own chest. “Angeal was giving me the rundown.”

“Have you read it yet?”

He shrugged. “What’s there to read?”

Kunsel turned a level gaze his way, brown eyes turned hazel in their Mako glow. “You would.” He sighed. “It seems simple enough of a mission. You, me, and a few other Seconds make a ruckus down in Tamblin. Four gates, four teams. There’s more to it than this, though, I know it.” He scrolled through his phone, the buttons clicking _tat-tat-tat tat-tat tat-tat-tat-tat_ like bursts of very small gunfire. Screens flickered. 

Zack settled back to try and read the official orders. He’d begun to go cross eyed over Director Deusericus’ legaleze when his tentmate made a victorious noise and passed him his phone. He scanned over the largely-redacted page and returned the phone with an overdramatic groan. “I can’t take any more of this gibberish, Kunsel. Can you translate?”

“You’re hopeless,” he said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “That’s last week’s scouting report. They think the Wutai army has been either breeding or capturing monsters as anti-SOLDIER weapons.”

He shrugged. “They’ve been doing that for ages. Half of their army is wild-caught and trained.”

“It wouldn’t be noteworthy to mention another pack of foulanders. No, this is something big, and they didn’t mention it in the official orders.”

Frowning, Zack turned back to his own phone and scrolled back through the document. “So no one knows?”

“We don’t even know, not officially.”

“Are you gonna tell anyone?”

Kunsel grimaced. “I technically shouldn’t have seen that. It was sent to the science department, not SOLDIER.”

“So sounding the alarm would land you in hot water. So what? You’ve been in trouble before, once or twice.”

“Not like this, man. You don’t want to know what I did to get that info.”

Zack sat up, wide eyed. “You hacked the Shinra computer system.” Kunsel didn’t answer. “You idiot! You complete moron! Did you do it from your phone? That’s insane!” Zack cackled. “What are you even doing in SOLDIER?” 

Kunsel half shrugged, already deep in his phone. Then he turned the screen to his bunkmate. “I think Kisaragi might be here.”

“What?” It was a brief news article from one of the local papers. “What would he be doing this far south?”

“Dunno,” he said with half a shrug and taking his phone back, “but I’d love to find out. It might be related to the anti-SOLDIER weapons. I’ll bet it’s why we’re moving tonight.”

Zack sat, elbows on knees, and tapped his fingers against his lips. 

> _“If Shinra has a target they want dealt with, completely, unequivocally, they send us.”_

_Is that what Sephiroth was talking about? Why they’re here in secret? Hell, why they’re here at all. If this battle is supposed to end the war, that’s the only thing that makes sense._

“Base to Zack,” Kunsel hissed into his hand. “Come in, Zack.”

Zack blinked and focused back on the present.

“Buddy, if you ever space out like that again, I’m sending you to Rocket Town.” He put down his phone and leaned close, real close, conspiratorially close. “You know something, don’t you?” he whispered.

It was a tense moment before Zack nodded ever so slightly.

Kunsel grinned, the eager almost feral grin he had when he was chasing down something he wasn’t supposed to know. He scooted closer, knees almost touching. “What is it?”

Zack smirked, laughed, and flopped back on his cot. “You’ll find out at 1900.”

“You ass,” Kunsel smacked him with his pillow. Then he groaned and leaned back. “I don’t think I can live on a planet where you know something I don’t.”

“Shut up and get some rest.” 

Zack spent most of that afternoon flip flopping between _This is the last rest you’ll get for a while. Fall asleep, dammit._ and _This is the most important battle of your career, promotion or not. No pressure._ Eventually, Kunsel swatted his boot and woke him from a doze. They checked their armor, their swords, their materia. They called their squads together, issued orders, and supervised the infantry gathering and organizing their armor, their guns, their materia.

They were lined up at attention in three units, two columns of four, SOLDIERs at the head of their parties. Zack and Kunsel stood on opposite sides of the aisle. Three squads led by Seconds. Angeal marched up and down the staging area, relaying orders they all had memorized. _More or less_ , he thought with an internal shrug. _I’ll bet Kunsel is wondering why there are only three squads._ Then two other Firsts stepped up to the edge of the area. _Introducing Unit D._ Sephiroth’s silver ponytail drifted in the breeze like a pennant. Zack could practically feel Kunsel’s side eye boring through his helmet’s visor. _Told you you’d find out tonight._ It was a practiced force of will that kept him from smirking.

“Unit A, get ready.”

Zack and his squad advanced.

Angeal placed his hand on Zack’s pauldron. “Remember your honor as a SOLDIER,” he murmured, a mantra recited before every mission. Louder, he commanded, “Unit A, Go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October 7-8 is not the official date of the Battle at Fort Tamblin. The official date was not provided. If an official date is ever provided, this will change.
> 
> Greatsword replaces canon SOLDIER longsword because Zack needs a bigger sword if he's gonna keep the same style of fighting with the Buster Sword. Fighting style somewhat inspired by Dark Knight in FFXIV.


	2. [ μ ] - εγλ 2000, October 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: there is battle and blood in this chapter. Still rated PG13

##  Fort Tamblin, Wutai

Zack signaled for his team to pause for a moment. The cliff’s edge was the perfect place to observe the gate. They’d lit torches against the deepening twilight that cast a flickering, ruddy light rather than the clean, cool white of Mako powered bulbs. The red and gold banners of Wutai hung limp in the thick air. A quick count had a rough dozen soldiers on the ground, and another half again -  _ no, wait, just four _ \- manning the stone palisades.  _ And who knows how many more are behind the door. _ The door itself was a good fifteen feet of reinforced wood, plus the ramparts, plus the gatehouse. 

“How does it look,” Fardel whispered from his side.

Zack glanced at his medic, helmed and dressed in Third Class blues. “Should be easy enough,” he replied with an eager grin. “Wait ten, then follow.”

Then he leapt off the cliff.

It was nothing for a SOLDIER of any rank, an easy twenty foot fall into the blind underbrush, but a fall that could still injure the enlisted men.  _ Fardel will bring them around. I need a minute to catch all their attention - maybe take a few out - before the rest of them come around the flank. _ He brushed errant leaves from his hair and sauntered into the square. “Good evening, Tamblin,” Zack crowed. “I’m SOLDIER Second Class Zack, and I’ll be playing Midgar’s greatest hits for you all tonight.”

“It’s the Shinra!” shouted one of the few orange uniformed Wutaians.  _ An officer? _ “Go, go! He’s only one man!” They charged, halberds ready. 

_ That’s more than a dozen _ , Zack thought as he unsheathed his greatsword.  _ Good, now I can really let loose! _

Fifty yards.

Thirty.

Twenty. 

Zack prepped and launched Fire into the oncoming line. The weak flash of heat was barely stronger than a bright candle, but it certainly got the Wutaian’s attention. With a yell, Zack collided into their line. 

He thrust and swung his sword in an arc, building the momentum that carried it around like a pendulum. The weight of his sword connected through his arm to his core, swung wide, up and into a helm shattering blow. 

To him, it felt slow, controlled, practiced. It took SOLDIER strength to control a sword of this weight with this level of dexterity. It took SOLDIER training to wield the sword of this length with this level of finesse.  _ It takes a certain something else to do it with style, that certain something that separates First Class from Second. _ He planted his rear foot and pivoted, his back straining in a satisfying way as he carved another arc out of the oncoming enemies. 

“After all these years,” he said as he swung his sword in a high arc, “I’m surprised you haven’t learned what it takes to stop a SOLDIER. Something big. Really really big. The Mako Cannon might do it.” He slammed the heel of his hand into a masked face. “Overwhelming odds -- and this ain’t it, chief.” The momentum of his sword carried him from move to move, stance to stance. His shoulders felt the sweet exertion, the whisper of fatigue that was so hard to reach. “The third and most effective way to stop a SOLDIER is to get a lucky shot. A really, crazy lucky shot.”

A spray of bullets ricocheted off his pauldrons, loud, concussive pings. Flashbulbs for his ears. He staggered, hand already cupping a ringing, hissing ear. He swore, turned, and launched Fire into the line of riflemen along the ramparts. “Come down, or wait your turn.” 

Another wave of Wutaian soldiers appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Zack leapt over the fallen and the groaning to engage the fresh reserves.  _ The rest of the team should be here any minute - there they are. _ Zack’s men entered the square, Fardel at their head. “You guys are so screwed,” he said over the whistle of charging spells. Machine gun fire pulsed in tempo, overlapping with spells as they exploded and echoed in the foregate. 

He winced against the noise and turned to the riflemen on the ramparts. They were lining up shots on his men. “I don’t think so,” he growled as he took a running leap at the palisades and kicked off the wall into the enemies. They hesitated a single heartbeat before they remembered they could use their weapons for melee. He collided into them, his sword already tearing through armor and flesh. They fell. Zack pulled his sword free and leaned over the ramparts. He tilted his good ear to his team. “You guys alright?”

“Yessir,” said Fardel as he slung his sword over his shoulder. “One injured, but he’ll be ok.” The warm glow of restorative magic illumined the medic.

“Bastard got off a lucky shot.”

“One more moment and he’ll be right as rain.”

“Good,” Zack answered. “Let me know when I can open this door.”

A pause, then, “Ok, we’re all set.”

“Hang on one second.” He ducked into the gatehouse. There was only one lever, connected to a gear that could have been a saw blade in another life, and that was attached to a large weighted chain. He shrugged and pulled the lever. The gear spun free and the weights fell to the ground with a thud he felt in his boots. He rubbed at his ear. It was like half of his world had been covered by a blanket, like an ear infection, like a q-tip shoved way too far in.

His team rushed through the open door and Zack hopped down to join them. They advanced through the twisting warren of roads. Shinra’s high resolution satellite scans couldn’t account for all the secret passages and trap doors.  _ These maps aren’t any help, _ he thought as he shoved the phone back in his pocket.

Even one SOLDIER was hardly necessary against the small knots of resistance they ferreted out, nevermind two SOLDIERS backed up by a half dozen infantry. He served as a distraction while his men pummeled them with the sharp  _ rat-tat-tat _ of gunfire and high whistle of magic that echoed off the stone walls. He winced, every piercing crack of gunfire was a q-tip attached to a jackhammer.

“Sir?” The infantry medic began, the warm light of restoration materia lighting the butt of his gun. “Are you ok?”

He immediately dropped his hand to his side and smiled. “I’m fine, Sawyer. Nothing to worry about.”  _ Remember SOLDIER presentation. We don’t get injured, we don’t- Shit, I’m not bleeding, am I? _

The medic’s mouth tightened briefly in doubt. Zack was glad he didn’t have to meet his eyes behind that mask.  _ God, he’s so young. _ “If it’ll make you feel better, you can give me a once over when the mission’s completed.” He double checked the map again, then closed his phone with a click. “Our objective should be on the other side of the door.” He pushed and it swung open on balanced hinges.“Well, our ‘objective’ was fighting out here, but, hey, whatever HQ wants to call --” 

Scattered blue and grey uniforms of Shinra forces lay still amongst the green and orange of Wutai. 

“Fardel, Sawyer, go.” The two medics saluted and dashed inside. “The rest of you, I don’t care how little field medical training you’ve gotten, do what you can to help.” His men scattered, some already reaching into their pouches for potions or tufts of phoenix down. Zack himself was moving as well, pushing through the killing field, searching for survivors. His phone was already up to his mouth, push to talk button engaged. “This is Young Pup to Base, come in.”

A groan.  _ Where?  _ He spun, his entire left side dead as a phone off the hook.

“This is Base, go ahead Zack.”

“I’m going to need an evac,” he said as he picked a way through the bodies.  _ Which ones are still alive? _ “One of the Second units is down. Very down.”

“Which unit? Do you know?”

“Not yet,” he said.  _ Purple- there he is. _ “I’ll have an answer for you in a second. Stand by.” Zack rushed forward to the Second’s side, anonymous until he pulled his visor up. Blood and dirt flecked Kunsel’s face where it had penetrated the eye slit. He wheezed.  _ He’s alive! _ “It’s Unit B, Kunsel’s unit.”

“Roger. What’s your location?” 

“Innermost part of the Fort. My medics are stabilizing.”

“Ok, we have an extraction team on route. Zack, be careful out there. Base out.”

Zack stuffed the phone in his pocket and focused on the injured Second. “Kunsel, buddy, come on, what happened to you?” He attempted to force a thread, just a drop of curative magic from his materia. Kunsel remained unresponsive. “Fardel, I need you here.” The Third Class medic picked his way through the bodies and immediately focused on the fallen SOLDIER.  _ What in the world could have taken out a Second like this? _

The whole world vibrated. 

Zack almost thought it was a small earthquake until a second tremor followed. And a third. He couldn’t hear it coming on his left, but he could sure feel it. 

> _ “The Wutai army has been either breeding or capturing monsters as anti-SOLDIER weapons.” _
> 
> _ “After all these years, I’m surprised you haven’t learned what it takes to stop a SOLDIER--” _

Zack felt cold. Another step. He reached for his sword and turned.

> _ “--Something big. Really really big.” _

He had no words for what it was. It was big, it was armored, it was covered in those Wutaian scrolls, and it carried a massive axe. His team began to form up ranks behind him. “Stand down,” he said. “Help the injured. Evac is on its way.”

Sawyer gripped his gun until his leather gloves creaked. “Sir, one of us should back you up.”

The gigas -  _ no, it’s bigger than that  _ \- paused and sniffed the air. “No, none of you have a chance against that thing. It’s made for killing SOLDIERs.” Sawyer stiffened and the fittings on his gun rattled slightly. “Help the injured,” he repeated softly, then advanced toward the monster.

_ If this flanked Kunsel and his team, no wonder they’re all in the dirt. _ Zack adjusted the grip on his sword.  _ Get it away from the team. _ One step, then another. He saluted the monster the way Angeal taught him. 

> _ “Remember your honor as a SOLDIER,” _

He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck, muscles already warm and ready. He lobbed a puff of Fire into the middle of that snub nosed face. “You’re anti-SOLDIER, huh? Well, here I am.” The gigas growled, yellowed teeth bared. 

Zack did a couple squats as it lumbered forward. “A slow one. Did you miss leg day?”  _ It’s taking the bait. _ Fardel and Sawyer were directing the other five to move the injured Shinra troops - Kunsel included. It raised that murderous axe for a strike, but he rolled out of the way. The blade left a Zack-sized gash through the stone paving and deep into the earth. The concussive crash buffeted his deaf ear. He stumbled, swayed as he fought to regain his center. Brows puckered in pain and focus, he closed the distance and rolled a double upward arching slash, right then left, and danced away.

Zack retreated step by step, feinting in for a quick jab that glanced off of armor almost as often as it nicked thick hide. His eyes flickered over the gigas’ shoulder, his team and the injured were in the shelter of the doorway. “It’s just you and me, buddy.” 

Then he caught sight of another. 

_ Oh no. _ It was as big, as meaty, as armored as the first one. It stomped and snuffled and carried around an equally large mace.  _ No wonder Kunsel’s team was- _

It lumbered toward the doorway and the injured.  _ No no no, shit shit shit, this is bad. This is dumb! _ His weak flicker of Fire blossomed in the second gigas’ face, drawing its attention. It snorted and roared and thundered his way.

The red-armored gigas raised his axe. Zack dodged. The green-armored gigas cuffed him with a plated fist. He spun through the air. It felt like a dagger stabbed his ear, behind his jaw, and into his throat. He hit the retaining wall and landed in a heap. The world spun; nothing was sharp except for the echoing pain in his ear. He groaned and forced himself to his feet. 

_ Can’t let a little concussion stop me. _ Zack brought his sword up in a defensive stance and circled the pair. 

He felt a thread of curative magic and immediately his vision cleared, bruises faded, the pain in his ear wasn’t quite so insistent. He looked up. Sawyer stood just outside the doorway, at the very edge of his casting range. The warm glow of restorative magic faded as he saluted and ducked back with the others.  _ That was a direct order to retreat, but I’d be toast if he hadn’t done that. _ He focused back on the monsters. The axe blade fell, but slid off Zack’s angled sword.

_ My men are safe. The injured are safe. _ He took a deep breath in through his nose and blew it out through his mouth.  _ Time to do this. _

Green’s mace rose. Zack dodged beneath the blow and came up on its flank, striking as he stood from his roll. SOLDIER strength behind five feet of sharp steel bit deep into the gigas’ side. It roared and turned, blood soaking through its armor. Zack turned with it. Red Armor snuffled, searching for its target. Green bared its teeth. Zack returned the gesture. “Anti-SOLDIER weapons? You’re just a couple of big guys who got lucky.” 

Red Armor spun around, faster than Zack thought it could move, and lobbed the axe his way. He dove out of the way with a breathy, “Oh shit!” The wind rippled his hair as it crashed into the wall behind him. The wall collapsed into a heap of rubble. Zack gulped.  _ That could have been me. _

He swung his blade around again, gaining momentum, letting it carry him as much as he guided it. The rhythm of the fight locked in place around him. He slashed again and again, leaving wedges of bloody meat behind. He turned his upward strike back downwards in a screaming arc that split Green’s skull, crown to iron-bound jaw. Zack jerked his sword free, and had to dance backwards to avoid being crushed by the collapsing body.

“Now,” he said between breaths, wiping sweat and blood from his face, “it’s just you and me.” Red Armor dumbly regarded the bulk of his former companion. It blinked those piggy eyes, completely confounded by the mass between him and Zack. “You’re not a bright one, are you.” 

He vaulted over the corpse and slashed upward across Red Armor’s chest and neck, through its bulging shoulder muscles. He hung midair from the upward force, straining already strained muscles - core, chest, arms, even the little finger muscles - he turned the upward momentum down. The blade cut through hide, tendon, muscle, and bone. It bellowed, arms hanging slack and useless at its side. 

_ One more _ . 

He heaved with his legs through his back and shoulders to push his sword back up through the meaty neck. Blood poured in pulsing bursts, hot and sticky over his hands. He pivoted, left arm pushing up, right arm pulling back, braced and pulled the blade out in one fluid motion, blood spraying in an arc. The gigas gurgled and gasped, partially decapitated, and collapsed in a shuddering heap as it died.

Zack leaned on his sword, gasping breath himself. His breaths turned to chuckles, then to laughter.  _ I won. I’m alive. _ Then he groaned. All of his muscles burned and ached. His ear rang like a thousand sirens. His uniform clung to his sweaty skin. The ever widening circle of gigas blood on the paving stones reached the toes of his boots.  _ My boots, the paving stones, and blood. The same brown and grey and rust red. _ He heaved a sigh.  _ I’d love a cold shower and a soft bed. Hell, I’d take a washcloth and my cot. _

He took a breath and began to walk.  _ Cool down. Never forget to cool down. Forget to cool down and you’ll be sore in the morning. Heh, can a SOLDIER even get sore? _

The inner courtyard of the fort was blissfully quiet. The full moon rose ahead of him, silhouetting one of those elaborate Wutaian buildings. Twin statues flanked the terraced path. Fireflies blinked in the shadows, fading out in one place then reappearing elsewhere. 

There was a fountain, water gurgling out of a serpent’s mouth, and bench, or at least a lip that he used as a bench.  _ Gotta rest, just a second. _ He leaned back against the retaining wall, eyes closed, sword pommel resting gently against his shoulder. The damp wood was cool against the back of his legs and the flowing water soothing. He floated, dozed.

He jerked awake and reached for his phone.  _ I need to contact Angeal. _ He fished his phone out of his pocket, pacing the courtyard to stay awake. “Young Pup to the Golden Trio.”

It took so long for the response, he thought there was no connection. Then a click. “This is Angeal. We’re kind of busy right now, Zack. Make it quick.”  _ Is that fighting? _

“Reporting in. West Gate and related sectors are secured. Kunsel’s team is down but already evaced. It looks like they secured their gate first.” He wheezed an exhausted laugh. “Had to fight two anti-SOLDIER weapons to get them all out of here.”

“Anti-SOLDIER weapons?” More fighting in the static. “I haven’t heard anything about those.”

“Oh, is that was that was?” an unfamiliar voice mused.  _ Probably Rhapsodos _ ?

“So you’ve seen them? Armored and ‘roided gigas?”

“Engaged and neutralized,” Sephiroth confirmed.

“How do you know they’re anti-SOLDIER weapons?” Angeal’s tone was patient, but it was the tone that expected a full confession. It was very, very familiar.

Zack sighed. “I, uh, heard it from a friend?”

“I’ll ask Kunsel about it later.”

“Hang on, how did you know?”

His voice had a breathless laugh to it. “Who else would know something they shouldn’t?” 

A roar echoed through the courtyard.  _ Now what? _ Zack hauled himself onto the low hanging roof, then climbed the building itself. Second tier. Third. He could see most of the fortress from his perch. “What the hell was that?”

“No time to talk. Angeal out.”

Zack stared at the now silent phone in his hand.  _ They’re Firsts. They’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. _ That didn’t stop his blood from running cold with the next roar. He clapped his hands over his ears. It sounded like a chorus, multiple voices echoing through the fort. 

It unfolded from the architecture like a very tall man getting out of a very small car. It stood taller than the stone walls, dark green skinned and draped in robes, vaguely humanoid -  _ at least two humans squashed together. Three. It’s got three heads, no, three faces on one head. What the HELL is that? _

Three much smaller, much more human figures in First Class uniforms dashed around the corner, harried by four other monsters. Angeal led the charge fists first, his sword still strapped to his back. He engaged with a monster with legs like tree trunks and a glowing something in its chest. It spun a ball the size of his head at the end of a long chain. Angeal ducked under his opponent’s swinging flail, grappled it, and threw it into the stone wall where it lay still. 

_ Hang on, those aren’t even from around here. That wiggly one, I had to hunt a few of them down back in Midgar. How the hell did they get a hold of those?  _ Rhapsodos paused for a brief moment, running a hand along the blade of his rapier. The glowing crimson blade made short work of the two beasts.

Sephiroth barely broke stride, his hair a pennant in the wind. He brought his longstaff up to his hip, silk bag fluttering to the ground, fingers wrapped around the hilt.  _ You idiot, not a longstaff. Since when did Sephi-freakin-roth ever use something as boring as a longstaff?  _ Sephiroth drew his sword in a halfmoon slice. The winged monster dropped out of the sky. 

_ They took those monsters out like they were nothing! _

They regrouped, barely paused, and advanced. Angeal finally unsheathed his sword and charged. Rhapsodos flanked the three faced monster, weaving sword strikes with flashes of spells. Sephiroth hung back, giving what looked like directions and support. When he did finally engage, Zack’s whole concept of battlefield changed. 

It went  _ vertical _ .

As a unit, they used the walls, the monster, and each other to ascend. Whatever advantage the monster had in size was suddenly gone. Angeal swung that sword around in ways that Zack could only dream. He landed blow after spinning blow, barely alighting longer than it would take to spring back into the air for another strike. Rhapsodos landed several blows to the monster’s head, flipped backward from its shoulder, already casting. He was barely out of the spell’s radius when it exploded. His feet barely touched the stone walls before he was airborne again.

Angeal swung his sword like a pendulum - the way Zack did. Rhapsodos used his sword like punctuation. Sephiroth, though. His swordsmanship was poetry. His combat looked like practice, one form that flowed to the other. He didn’t seem to leap or spring or flip as much as float. It was like gravity itself was within his bubble of absolute self-control. Calm, effortless.

Not that the three-faced monster was just allowing them to wail on it. Its bestial face snarled. It wielded a massive scimitar in one of its four hands. The trio flitted around the giant and around the slow, clumsy swings of that scimitar. It tracked the three, head turning left, then right and kept turning. It seemed to be turning to look over his shoulder, then past. Zack watched in horror and expected to hear the snap of a broken neck. The turning stopped. 

The battle hung suspended as the leering white face smiled down at the three. There was a brief argument between Rhapsodos and Sephiroth, lots of large hand gestures from Rhapsodos, before they regrouped. 

It was like tunnel vision the way the road dimmed. A sphere of dark energy pressed around them, crushing them to the stones, into the stones, all three forced to a knee as the darkness contracted, then evaporated. Rhapsodos shot Sephiroth a dark look and a quip that Zack couldn’t hear, then they all glowed with the warm light of restorative magic. Angeal was already up and moving, Sephiroth close behind.

The beast face snarled and turned forward. The trio ignored the movement this time, leaping up the jolly green giant. Rhapsodos sprung backward and launched a halo of phantom swords. He didn’t see the scimitar already falling on him. The impact threw him skittering several yards across the paving stones. He didn’t move.

“No, get up!” Zack shouted from his rooftop balcony seating. His hands clenched and unclenched.  _ I’m too far away to be any good for anyone. _ He scanned the rooftop, the terrace walls, the trees. He could almost see a path to get to where the fight was. 

_ What do you think you could do to help them? They’re not just Firsts, they’re the poster children for what Firsts are supposed to be. _

He pushed his own injuries and his own exhaustion to the back of his mind and dropped off the roof.  _ But I can’t just stand here and watch. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October 7-8 is not the official date of the Battle at Fort Tamblin. The official date was not provided. If an official date is ever provided, this will change.
> 
> Greatsword replaces canon SOLDIER longsword because Zack needs a bigger sword if he's gonna keep the same style of fighting with the Buster Sword. Fighting style somewhat inspired by Dark Knight in FFXIV. Genesis' fighting style somewhat inspired by Red Mage in FFXIV.
> 
> fight scenes are really hard to write


	3. [ μ ] - εγλ 2000, October 8

##  Fort Tamblin, Wutai

Zack slid down the stones of the retaining wall and stumbled to a halt. The street was completely empty. Except for the damage that came with a twenty foot tall monster on a rampage, it looked like nothing had happened. 

“Where’s the monster? Did you win?”

“What are you doing here, Zack?” Angeal asked as he helped Rhapsodos to his feet. 

“I saw you guys fighting. I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.”

“Your duty is to capture the Gate-”

“I did! I told you!”

“-and hold it.”

Rhapsodos groaned and rolled his eyes. “I thought your men had better discipline than this, Angeal.”

Both Zack and Angeal stiffened. “Zack is one of my best men. I don’t doubt he knows exactly what he’s doing and has a very good reason why he did it, even if he’s shooting off his mouth.”

“Again. I heard him back at base. And you think he’d even be considered for First Class?”

“I’m right here, you know.”

“How I choose to train my men is not your concern. When was the last time you were in the field with subordinates?”

“Never, and I’d like to keep it that way.” Rhapsodos waved his hand dismissively. “Underlings just get in my way.”

Zack bit the inside of his cheek.

“They’re only in the way if you don’t know what to do with them.” Angeal’s eyes pinned Zack. “Now, why did you leave your position.”

“Both gates were secure, like I said. I saw you guys fighting the jolly green giant. I watched the whole thing. When it hit Rhapsodos, I couldn’t just stand there and wait.”

“You came,” Rhapsodos scoffed, “for me? What do you think a Second could do that a First couldn’t?”

Zack sighed. “Nothing.”

“Nothing..?”

“Nothing.”  _ They say to never meet your idols.  _ “Sir.”

A footfall at the end of the road had all heads turning. Sephiroth casually bent down to retrieve his discarded scabbard and sheathed his sword. “There’s no sign of the monster, but I did see a man matching Kisaragi’s description head toward the eastern gate. We’ll pursue and-” he pointed at Zack with the butt of his katana. “What’s he doing here?” 

Zack rolled his eyes heavenward. “I just came to help out, ok? It looked like you guys were in a pinch and thought maybe, just maybe, I could help. I know I’m  _ only _ a Second, but I couldn’t just stand back and watch.”

“You came to help. Hmm.” He took out his phone and stepped away.

Angeal’s eyes never left Zack. “What’s wrong.”

Zack realized that he’d been tilting his good ear toward the conversation, watching them sidelong. “Can’t hide anything from you, can I? Some soldier almost got a really lucky shot in. Hit my armor instead, but blasted the hell out of my ear. Can’t hear a damn thing.”

“When?”

“Before we breached the West Gate.”

“And you fought on?”

“Yeah?”

“Second Class Fair will be joining us,” Sephiroth said on the phone.

“Against all the Wutaian resistance?”

“Yeah?”

“And the -- what did you call them -- ‘armored and ‘roided gigas’?”

“I mean, what else could I do besides deal with it and keep going? Mine and Kunsel’s guys would have been creamed if I didn’t.”

“He’s under consideration for promotion to First Class,” Sephiroth cast a glance over his shoulder at Zack, “and I’m not finished with him.”

Zack shivered as though someone walked over his grave.

“We’re not seriously-”

“He took on two anti-SOLDIER weapons, each bred with the intention of taking out any one of us. He defeated _ two _ after a gauntlet of Wutaian troops, half deaf, to make sure his and another Unit made it out alive. Then, after all that, came to pull you out of the gutter.  I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of man I want on my team.”  Angeal turned to Zack. “Did I get everything, or do you have any other injuries we should know about?”

“Besides generally getting banged up by those gigas, no.” Angeal gave him a flat look. “I promise! Maybe a cracked rib or two, but Sawyer patched me up pretty good before they evaced.”

“I want you to understand how important it is to let your team know when you sustain injuries like these.” A materia lit up with that warm glow. 

Zack felt the healing magic brace him up. 

“Injuries like this can affect not only your ability to function, but can also handicap your teammates. Everything turned out this time, but you could have put the lives of your men in danger.”

He took a deep breath, swallowed, and his ear popped with a resounding crack. Sound rushed back in on his left side, bright and loud. He sighed in relief. The overenthusiastic q-tip was gone. He stretched and twisted, his sense of balance returning like a bludgeon to knock him back the other way. “Right-o.”

“I’m being serious, Zack.”

Sephiroth rejoined the party, his hair loose around his face -  _ the way he’s supposed to look _ \- and flicked the offending hairband to the ground. “Your orders have been updated. Second Class Fair, you are now accompanying my team. Angeal is still your direct commanding officer, but he reports to me. You’ll follow my orders as well as his.”

“What about him?” Zack tilted his head toward Rhapsodos.

Sephiroth’s thin lipped smile was cold and mocking. “Him, you can ignore. He doesn’t want underlings, remember?”

“Hey!” Rhapsodos protested, but they were already moving. They didn’t run. They didn’t jog. They walked with long, hunting strides through the twisting warrens of the fortress. Sephiroth’s pace devoured the distance. Zack scrambled to keep up. “So, if I’m joining the party, shouldn't I know the orders?”

Angeal didn’t break stride as he pulled out his phone. Zack’s vibrated in his pocket. “I’ve forwarded them to you. They are con.fi.den.tial,” Angeal emphasized every syllable, “so no one gets to know about them.”

Zack barely got two extra-long sentences in before he had to stop and check who the original sender was.  _ Director Deusericus. Of course. _ He groaned. “Can you give me the rundown? I can’t understand half of what he says when I’m  _ not  _ double-timing it with Firsts.”

“You’re the one who wanted to come,” Angeal laughed. “In short, this is a search-and-destroy mission.”

Zack paused for a moment. “I knew it.”

“And how did you guess that?”

“It was what Sephiroth said back at base. That if HQ wants something done right, they send you guys in. Or something like that. Then Kunsel mentioned that Kisaragi might be here. I put two and two together.”

Angeal raised a slightly impressed eyebrow. “We’ll make a tactician out of you yet.” He hesitated. “Did you tell Kunsel?”

“Actually, no. He was pissed about it.”

“Of course he was.”

“So, it’s supposed to be an assassination. Why not send the Turks? Is there anything else to it?”

Angeal thought for a moment. “Not really, no. None that you have to worry about, anyway. Remember your SOLDIER honor and you’ll be fine.”

_ ‘In all things, remember your SOLDIER honor.’ That’s what you’ve told me every day since I was assigned to you. I thought that was just how First Class did things. _ Zack’s eyes drifted to Rhapsodos ahead of him.  _ I guess it’s just Angeal. _

When they reached the East Gate, it simply wasn’t there. Oh, there was a road and a courtyard, a clear Inside and Outside; there was just no gate, no gatehouse, no lever and saw-bladed gear to open the door, no door. There was only a heap of rubble, ash, and glimpses of green and orange. 

Zack gawked. The rubble wasn’t in chaotic piles that would have followed a desperate fight. Not even localized clusters of hard fighting like he left behind at the West Gate. No, this was coordinated, one move, a whirlwind of force at the gate itself. He brushed his fingers against smooth cut stone where the threshold had once been.  _ The best. They really are the best. _

“Zack, did you come to help or not,” Sephiroth said.

_ And I get to work with them. _ “Sir!” The trio had fanned out and were searching through the underbrush for something. “What are we looking for?

“Tracks. Kisaragi must have escaped into the jungle.”

“Gotcha.” Zack scanned the ground where the paving turned to mud. He paced in an arc, back and forth, with exaggerated care to not get in Rhapsodos’ way. With each pass, he looked deeper into the underbrush, careful not to trample some overlooked clue.  _ There. _ Moss scraped from a stone, a dry leaf surrounded by wet ones, a little further in and he saw what might be a footprint in the mud. “I think I found something.”

Rhapsodos - who was on the complete opposite side of the courtyard - scoffed. “You think you found something. And where in the world did you learn tracking?”

“Back home, when I was a kid.” He stepped back to give Angeal more space . “There wasn’t much else to do besides play in the jungle.”

“I think he’s right,” Angeal said as he stood from inspecting the trail. “It’s more direction than any of us have found. Good eye.”

Zack paused to allow the three to go first, but Rhapsodos paused. He looked at the trail, a shadow of a wrinkle on his brow. Then he turned that studying look on Zack. “Where are you from?”

“Gongaga, born and raised.”

“Where?”

“East of here, on the mainland, past Cosmo Canyon. There’s not much there besides mud, jungle, and the reactor.”

Rhapsodos nodded thoughtfully and followed the other two into the jungle.

Zack hesitated. “Aren’t we going to get a light or something?” The full moon and torches had been bright enough for inside the fort, but the underbrush was pitch black.

“No.” Sephiroth turned, his mako eyes a glimmer in the dark. “Adapt. It’s what SOLDIER does.” Then they were gone and Zack hustled to follow.

_ Yeah, sure, that’s what any soldier does, what would make SOLDIER any different. We’re super strong and fast, yeah, great, but it’s not like we magically get night vision. _

Despite Sephiroth’s clear preference for a grueling pace, they were forced to move slowly, quietly. More than once, he was asked to verify some track or odd mark. Whether it was Sephiroth testing him or actually asking for advice, he couldn’t tell. Time passed, and the jungle did grow somewhat more visible. Not bright, but he could see where the moonlight hit the leaves in the underbrush, where the fireflies drifted, the slight difference between the black of a root and the blacker black of its shadow. He followed the shadows and soft materia glow of Angeal’s sword.

It was long, long past midnight when Sephiroth called them to a halt. He pulled out his phone and squinted against the bright screen. Angeal and Rhapsodos faced the surrounding jungle.

_ He just killed his night vision. Hell, I just killed my night vision. _ The jungle was as black and impenetrable as it was at the East Gate, if not worse. He snapped his eyes shut and turned his back to the light.

“Orders have changed,” Sephiroth said as he snapped the phone shut. “Wutai just surrendered.”

“You’re kidding!”

Rhapsodos hissed. “Shut up. Remember where we are.”

“But they surrendered,” Zack said, but in a much quieter voice.

“Angeal, how did he even make it this far in the program?”

“Honest enthusiasm?”

“Hard work.”

Sephiroth didn’t comment. Instead he leveled those cold mako eyes at Zack. “Officially, Wutai denounces all anti-Shinra actions, but there are still pockets of resistance. Our orders are to pursue the remnants and eliminate them.”

“Hunt them down? Wouldn’t that break the ceasefire?”

“No. Since they have renounced any connection with continued resistance, they are now considered rebels to be removed, whether by Shinra or Wutai. This surrender is too important for both sides to be ruined by a cluster of would-be heroes.”

“If they fight, they fight alone.” Zack whispered to himself.

“Base is airdropping supplies. We have to make it to the rendezvous point before dawn.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience. I had this chapter finished back in June, but with the BLM protests, I couldn't in good conscience post anything that glorified the American Military Complex, even just a little. Zack is still a proud SOLDIER here, even if disillusionment and anti-war will come later.
> 
> Black Lives Matter  
> Trans Rights are Human Rights  
> just... love thy neighbor, please?


End file.
